Torte

Origin

The best-known of the typical tortes include the Austrian Sachertorte and Linzertorte, the German Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte, and the many-layered Hungarian Dobos torte. But other well-known European confections are also tortes, such as the French Gâteau St. Honoré.

In Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Ukraine, and Russia cakes are usually called tortes without differentiating between cake and torte. In Polish, as an example, the word torte is translated into Polish as tort, but tort can be also translated as layer cake or cream cake.

Icing

An element common to some tortes is sweet icing (exceptions are several French tortes, such as Gâteau Mercédès and Gâteau Alcazar.) When the cake is layered, a thick covering of icing is placed between the layers, and there is almost always icing on the tops and sides of the torte. An example is the whiskey cake. A number of European tortes do not have layers. Some, for instance German-style "Käsesahnetorte", are unbaked.